Top 75 Pessimism Quotes

I just think there is so much irrational pessimism in the world.

Pessimism is as American as apple pie – frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese.

Sometimes pessimism or optimism gets popular, and it’s contagious.

Both hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader.

I’m a pessimist. But I think I’d describe my pessimism as broken-hearted optimism.

Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.

There’s probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism.

I think a certain degree of pessimism is actually helpful to love.

Confidence isn’t optimism or pessimism, and it’s not a character attribute. It’s the expectation of a positive outcome.

It fails everybody, pretty much, the American Dream, but people are driven by it. I don’t think we’re driven by the same sense of hope in Europe. We’re driven by pessimism more.

Pessimism is my default setting.

It’s much more fun to be full of hope than pessimism any day of the week.

Pessimism doesn’t grow your business or even maintain the status quo. The pessimists on your staff make the job harder for everyone around them. They make difficulties out of opportunities.

Optimism isn’t funny unless you are laughing at the person, whereas extreme pessimism is extremely funny. It’s exaggeration.

One has to have the courage of one’s pessimism.

Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it’s all at, it’s what lights the fire.

Thanks to my Buddhist faith, to the positivity that arose from prayer, I put the optimism of determination before the pessimism of logic and reason.

If only media people would stop reaching for the low-hanging fruit, which is cynicism and pessimism, and stopped trying so hard to be hip and cool and have a swagger.

There is a real danger of unintended consequences, of encouraging people to give up. Pessimism, if it becomes a habit, can reinforce a narrative of unstoppable decline. If there is nothing we can do, that releases us from our obligations.

My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.

Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerves give to wisdom.

I first read Dostoyevsky when I was 14 years old and was entranced. Dostoyevsky truly is a writer for 14-year-olds, and I mean that in the most approving way – approving of his energy, and rage, his endless pessimism, and endless innocence.

The older books were quite light-hearted. But I think most of my novels do end on a deep note of pessimism. Shadows seem to be closing in. The final conclusion isn’t that life is wonderful and everything is bright and cheery and in the garden.

Germany’s Angela Merkel exudes an atmosphere of elderly exhaustion and pooped-out pessimism. Britain’s David Cameron, though by nature exuberant, feels he has to look and sound glum. And France’s leader, Francois Hollande, seems determined to drive every successful businessman out of the country.

It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins. Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.

If only media people would stop reaching for the low-hanging fruit, which is cynicism and pessimism, and stopped trying so hard to be hip and cool and have a swagger.

When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, have you grown old.

I’m a pessimist. But I think I’d describe my pessimism as broken-hearted optimism.

Thanks to my Buddhist faith, to the positivity that arose from prayer, I put the optimism of determination before the pessimism of logic and reason.

Don’t pessimism and caution naturally go hand in hand?

Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

I wouldn’t say that I relax and enjoy anything. But I think my pessimism helps. I never really expect anything good to happen, so when it does, it’s a nice surprise.

I have never met an intelligent optimist. That is not to say I think pessimism makes you intelligent, but I have always felt like an Old Testament Jeremiah or Cassandra from ancient Greece. I want to run down the streets warning people.

One has to have the courage of one’s pessimism.

Pessimism about America’s future tends to underestimate its capacity for self-renewal.

Though there are many differences between Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, they are strikingly similar in their poor economic records and even more so in their shared pessimism and bearishness on America.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

I definitely grew up on Garfield. I just loved his pessimism.

I just think there is so much irrational pessimism in the world.

Many young Muslims see no opportunities for themselves and do not feel they have control over their lives or a stake in their nation’s future. Such pessimism leads to disengagement. We risk losing a generation of young Muslims to apathy and extremism.

I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago.

Pessimism about America’s future tends to underestimate its capacity for self-renewal.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

Blending hard-bitten realism with long-view optimism, Obama said that every 20 or 30 years brings a new cycle of pessimism in America.

When a country is strong… it accepts any dose of pessimism from its writers.

I think a certain degree of pessimism is actually helpful to love.

The reason why there is more pessimism about technology in Europe has to do with history, the use of databases to keep track of people in the camps, ecological disasters.

There is a real danger of unintended consequences, of encouraging people to give up. Pessimism, if it becomes a habit, can reinforce a narrative of unstoppable decline. If there is nothing we can do, that releases us from our obligations.

I’d like very much to make a confident picture. I would like to be as good as nature, which, with a shower, produces flowers and grass to cover the destruction. But we are surrounded by human fragmentation, by pessimism, and it is difficult to talk of other things.

Pessimism is as American as apple pie – frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese.

I don’t think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story.

Pessimism is rife in Israel.

With the sole exception of President Bill Clinton, whose ‘bridge to the 21st century’ evoked the vision and optimism of other great Democratic presidents of the 20th century, such as FDR and John F. Kennedy, pessimism about America’s economic future has been the hallmark of modern progressivism.

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

Science fiction always has had strains of pessimism and optimism weaving through its historical development, sometimes one dominating and then the other, usually depending on the state of the world.

Confidence isn’t optimism or pessimism, and it’s not a character attribute. It’s the expectation of a positive outcome.

Whether we like it or not, there are moments in history when pessimism is the appropriate response.

Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will.

In securing the future of the planet, we secure happiness for ourselves. One of the aims of the Greens is to turn around the tide of pessimism amongst the young people of the world.

Pessimism never won any battle.

My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.

I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago.

I find the strongest predictor of people who do well at Shopify is whether they see opportunity as something to compete for, or do they see opportunity as essentially everywhere and unlimited? It’s a rough proxy for pessimism and optimism.

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

You know, the pessimism which exists now in the Middle East existed in Northern Ireland, but we stayed at it.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

Web 2.0 ideas have a chirpy, cheerful rhetoric to them, but I think they consistently express a profound pessimism about humans, human nature and the human future.

Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.

With the sole exception of President Bill Clinton, whose ‘bridge to the 21st century’ evoked the vision and optimism of other great Democratic presidents of the 20th century, such as FDR and John F. Kennedy, pessimism about America’s economic future has been the hallmark of modern progressivism.